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IGHER EDUGATION 
AND THE PEOPLE 



A PAPER READ BEFORE THE JOINT SESSION OF THE 
MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION 
AND THE MICHIGAN FARMERS' INSTITUTES 



By HENR Y C. ADAMS 

PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL EbONOMY AND 
FINANCE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN 



AN N A RB O R , M I C H I GA N 190 






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HIGHER EDUCATION AND THE PEOPLE.* 



BY PROFESSOR HENRY C. ADAMS OF THE UNIVERSITY 



No one can regret more than myself the enforced ab- 
sence of Dr. Angell, President of our University, to 
whom this paper on " Higher Education and the Peo- 
ple" was assigned in the program as originally drawn. 
It is evident that this topic should receive consideration in 
order to round out the educational feature of our program, 
which explains why I have consented, at the last moment, 
to say a few words respecting it. The topic is of peculiar 
significance when discussed before a Michigan audience. 
This State stands committed to the policy of public educa- 
tion and gives to the phrase a broad and comprehensive 
meaning, including not only what is technical and gen- 
eral, but the idea of popular education as well, for it is 
no misuse of language to include the Farmers' Institutes, 
as at present organized and conducted, as part of the 
educational system of the State. It is an interesting fact 
that at this, joint meeting of the Farmer's Institutes and 
the Michigan Political Science Association, everyphase 
of the problem of education receives either direct or 
indirect consideration. 

In discussing the relation of higher education to the 
people, I shall undertake no extended definition of higher 
education. It is a term which changes its meaning from 

*This paper was read February 25, 1902, at a joint meeting of the 
Michigan Political Science Association and the Michigan Farmers' Insti- 
tutes. It forms part of a general program, the object of which was 
to discuss the bearing of education upon rural prosperity. This pro- 
gram included a paper by President J. L. Snyder, of the Agricultural 
College, upon the " Economic Value of Industrial Education," a paper 
by the Hon. L. D. Harvey, Superintendent of Public Instruction in 
Wisconsin, upon "Changes Demanded in the Educational System of 
Rural Communities " and a paper by the Hon. Delos Fall, Superin- 
tendent of Public Instruction in Michigan, upon "The Rural School 
Problem in Michigan." It seems proper to make this statement in 
order to explain why the illustrations in the present paper are confined 
strictly to the class of work done in universities. 

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time to time in order to meet the changing needs of the 
community. As used in the present discussion, it in- 
cludes both the general and technical instruction offered 
by colleges, and the research carried on by instructors in 
these institutions. This last point seems to me of great 
importance, for under existing ideas relative to education, 
an institution of higher learning must be a center for 
investigation as well as a place for instruction. The ex- 
tension of knowledge is as truly a function of universities 
as is the imparting of that knowledge. The true teacher 
jVjpust be an investigatorj 
j^„,.iThus defined the relation of higher education to the 
people may be considered from three points of view. 
These are as follows: 

First. The point of view of those who seek an edu - 
cation. 
\ Second. The point of view of those who make use of 

\ the services of experts and professional men trained 

; at the college or university. 

Third. The point of view of the political, social and 
industrial conditions which are in large measure the 
^_^roduct of higher institutions of learning^ 

So far as the individual student is concerned, very lit- 
tle can be said upon the topic in hand. Were the ques- 
tion of education entirely, or even primarily, a personal 
question, there would be no answer to the argument that 
he who is benefitted by the instruction ought to pay for it. 
But this presumption does not present the matter in its 
true light. Our society is a complex affair. Each class 
depends for its prosperity upon the prosperity of other 
classes. The life of each individual is bound up with the 
life of all. Such being the case the advantage of an edu- 
cation to the individual cannot present the point of view 
from which the question of the relation of the higher 
education to the people may reasonably be discussed. 
There is, however, one observation relative to this 

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aspect of higher education of peculiar significance to us 
in Michigan. It is a matter of no slight importance to 
the citizens of this State that the highest in education 
lies open, and practically free, to any one who desires to 
avail himself of its advantages. Under such conditions 
education can never result in the establishment of a priv- 
ileged class. It can never get very far from the needs of 
the people. It can never become an aristocratic affair. 
From the prim.ary school to the university the opportunity 
of securing an education lies open to every citizen of the 
State. Were it not for the constant recruits from all 
classes of the people, the University, and 1 doubt not 
also, the Agricultural College, might as well close its 
doors. Statistical data in support of this statement could 
be submitted, were that necessary, but I leave this phase 
of the subject to hasten to what seems of relatively 
greater importance, namely, the general and social ad- 
vantage of maintaining higher institutions of learning. 

The second point of view from which the relation of 
higher education to the people may be considered pertains 
to the character of the service rendered by the men and 
women who receive collegiate and university instruction. 
The range of knowledge at the present time is so broad 
that no one person, however gifted, can become its mas- 
ter. Specialization is the rule in all progressive life, and 
the degree to which specialization is carried may be 
accepted as a measure of social advancement. The 
product of successful specialization is the expert. It may 
be that the motive which leads one to become an expert 
is the hope of personal advantage which knowledge gives, 
but it would be a mistake to assume that this advantage 
stops with him who by strenuous study becomes an expert. 
Indeed, we do not begin to measure its importance until 
we appreciate the extent to which it is used by the pub- 
lic at large. We are apt to overlook the fact that it is 
impossible to develop an expert of high efficiency without 

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raising the general plane of excellence in the class to 
which he belongs. An expert physician, for example, is 
only possible upon the basis of a highly developed science 
of medicine. Such a physician must avail himself of the 
thousands of experiments in the many laboratories scat- 
tered throughout the world. Each laboratory makes its 
contribution; each publishes its discovery. As isolated 
facts, these contributions and discoveries are of slight 
importance, but, correlated with the contributions and 
discoveries of other laboratories, they build up a body of 
useful knowledge which, in the hands of a skilled physi- 
cian, permits not only the alleviation of pain, but the 
control of disease before regarded as a sentence of death. 

Citizens of Michigan may contemplate with pride this 
phase of the argument, for no medical school in this 
country, and few in Europe, have made more positive or 
helpful contributions to the science of medicine, during 
the last quarter of a century, than the one which our 
State supports. One or two illustrations of what the 
development of the science of medicine has done in 
recent years may not be inappropriate. 

Diphtheria used to be one of the most dreaded of dis- 
eases, and well might this be the case. Before the 
discovery of modern treatment, fifty cases in an hundred 
terminated fatally; at present the ratio of mortality is 
ten in an hundred. In the matter of milk and milk poi- 
sons, there has been wonderful advance in recent years. 
The records of fourteen hospitals in the City of New York 
show that, in the case of children brought for treatment 
suffering from summer complaint, the average rate of 
mortality has been reduced from eighty-five per cent to 
fifty per cent. I might continue such illustrations with- 
out number, but these, mentioned are adequate to show 
that technical excellence on the part of the physician is 
of more importance to. the patient, and to us who are 
friends of the patient, than -to the physician himself. 

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The individual practitioner may be satisfied with a degree 
of excellence just above that of his competitors, for that 
would enable him to obtain the highest fees; what soci- 
ety wants, however, is a high plane of excellence on the 
part of all practitioners. If this be true (and the illus- 
tration applies equally to all expert and professional 
knowledge), the people at large are more vitally inter- 
ested in the maintenance of higher institutions of learn- 
ing, the product of which is a high level of professional 
excellence, than are the persons who attend those insti- 
tutions. 

If such a view of the case be conceded, the question 
of the relation of higher education to the people is thrown 
into a newer and truer light than when regarded from 
the point of view of those who receive instruction. The 
State, whose function it is to guard and develop the inter- 
est of the entire people, is not called upon to apologize 
for the expenditure of so much money as may be required 
to place at the disposal of the humblest citizen the ad- 
vantage of expert training. The people are interested in 
maintaining experiment stations in all branches of useful 
knowledge. 

It may perhaps be objected that investigation and re- 
search are not a proper function of institutions founded 
for instruction. To this 1 can only make reply, that, 
speaking generally and with the sanction of the history 
of civilization, the research which has blest the world 
has emanated from the universities. When institutions 
of higher learning cease to investigate and content them- 
selves with teaching what the world already knows, the 
development of civilization will be arrested; the world 
will have entered upon a period of retrogression and de- 
cay. I know of no other way by which the direct inter- 
est of the body of the people in higher education can be 
more clearly expressed. These educational institutions 
are a part of the social order. They perform a function 

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essential to the welfare of society. They render a ser- 
vice direct or indirect to every member of the community. 

Turning now to the third point of view from which 
higher education may be regarded, let us consider the 
general as distinct from the particular services rendered 
by higher education. This has been foreshadowed in 
what has already been said, but it is capable of more 
definite expression by means of a few specific illustrations. 

Upon what, let us ask, in the first place, does indus- 
trial prosperity depend.? Speaking broadly, I reply, it 
depends upon the character of the soil and of the climate, 
and upon the posession of raw material for manufacture. 
It depends also upon the safety of property and the secur- 
ity of contract. It depends, finally, upon the intelligence 
of the people which enables them to make use of natural 
opportunities. It is the third of these conditions of pros- 
perity which places emphasis upon education, . Intelli- 
gence has always been regarded as essential for effective 
labor. In medieval times, when men used tools, iudus- 
trial training was secured by means of a seven years' 
apprenticeship in whatever trade or craft was chosen, a 
fact which goes far toward explaining thewondeful hand- 
work that has come down to us from the fourteenth and 
fifteenth centuries. At present tools have given way to 
machiner}^ and ability to invent new methods of produc- 
tion and to direct large aggregations of labor have come 
to be of prime importance in the maintenance of industrial 
efficiency. Consider this, for a moment, on the side of 
invention. An hundred years ago inventions were more 
or less accidental. The thought that Nature could be 
conquered by patient study, and her forces harnessed to 
the treadmill of industry, thus making possible the eman- 
cipation of mankind from excessive toil, was not in-' 
eluded within the range of practical thinking. Contrast 
this with the present point of view. Invention is now 
a profession. The Bell Telephone Company, for exam' 

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pie, which, whatever we may say of it as a monopoly, 
has conferred inestimable benefits upon the community, 
has upon its payrolls the names of men who are trained 
in the sciences and the arts, all of whose time is spent 
in the laboratory with the view of perfecting this means 
of transmitting thought. This is not an isolated case. 
Every branch of industry has its experts.' No industry 
'carTcontinue to be progressive without its experts, and if 
we admit that the modern system of industrial organ- 
ization based upon machinery is of advantage to the 
world, we cannot evade the conclusion that the higher 
institutions of learning which train experts are an essen- 
tial factor in establishing and maintaining our present 
industrial efficiency. The inventor is as important to 
the preservation of industrial prosperity as is the physi- 
cian to the preservation of health, and when each man, 
whatever his business or occupation, appreciates to what 
extent his personal success depends upon the mainte- 
nance of general prosperity, he is forced in courtesy and 
in honesty to acknowledge a debt of obligation to that 
educational system which includes within its curriculum 
scientific training for investigation. Without our schools, 
not only would further progress be arrested, but we 
should soon lose the general intelligence necessary to 
avail ourselves of the technical progress already made. 

The same conclusion would be reached were we to 
consider the importance of efficient management. No 
man today can work alone. The principal of division of 
labor is of universal application. This is only another 
way of calling attention to the importance of organiza- 
tion ; and it goes without saying that if a thousand men 
are to work together they must work under the direction 
of a single mind, and that their efficiency as a working 
body depends upon the manner in which their labor is 
directed. But ability to manage a great industry comes 
not by birth ; it is the result either of experience or of 

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technical training. If learned in the school of experience 
it is the public that foots the bill, because it is the pub- 
lic that finally must bear the burden of mistakes and 
failures. It is far cheaper for the public to provide schools 
for the training of men into whose hands may be placed 
the management of great industries. Is it not then evi- 
dent that in business as well as in the professions, the 
demand for training is primarily a public demand, and 
that the body of the people, whether we regard the ques- 
tion from the point of view of organized workers seeking 
direction or from that of the consuming public have a 
most direct and imperative interest in the maintenance of 
those institutions which give the needed special training. 
Such considerations as these suggest what I belive to be 
the true relation between higher education and the people. 
Were further illustration of this sort necessary I might 
refer to the industrial history of Germany, whose recent 
commercial importance rests directly and avowedly upon 
her educational system. She has developed more exten- 
sively than any other country facilities for commercial 
and technical instruction. In England, also, is it coming 
to be recognized that the continuance of commercial 
supremacy depends upon the development of educational 
facilities; while in the United States, the necessity for 
commercial and technical education is forced upon the 
universities and colleges by the desire on the part of 
manufactures to secure standing in the worrd's market. 
Our own university has established a course in Higher 
Commercial Education, and the interest which business 
men have evinced in this course indicates that they 
appreciate the importance of trained intelligence in com- 
mercial affairs. To make this illustration tell upon our 
argument it is of course necessary again to remind you 
that the permanent success of one class, or one interest, 
is impossible unless it be accompanied by the success of 
all classes and all interests. The success of the agri- 

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cultural interest, for example, is bound up primarily with 
the development of a home market for agricultural prod- 
ucts, and it is a truism to say that the limit of this market 
is the prosperity of those members of the community not 
engaged in agriculture. 

My next illustration of the general advantage of higher 
education to the community calls to our attention the 
changes whch are rapidly taking place in the conditions 
of rural life. In medieval times agriculturists lived in 
little communities, going from their homes each day to 
work upon the land. Whatever we may say of the ad- 
vantages of intercourse which such a system permitted, 
it had the decided disadvantage of restricting the land 
that could be tilled. The farmer of our own time, on the 
other hand, accustomed as he is to the use of machinery, 
requires a large amount of land for cultivation, and this 
necessitates that he and his family live upon the land 
cultivated. I need not dwell upon the isolation incident 
to this method of cultivation, nor upon the fact that 
school and church privileges, as well as all those social 
amenities, which make life pleasant, are far from propi- 
tious. At present, however, there' seems to be some 
hope of relief. Certain changes are taking place which 
promise much for rural life I refer to the extension of 
electric lines through country districts, to the establish- 
ment of local telephone service, to the wide dissemination 
of electric power, to the rural mail delivery, and the like. 
The social possibilities bound up in the full development 
of these enterprises, as M^ell as others of the same class 
that might be mentioned lie beyond the power of the 
imagination to grasp. We are, I believe, upon the eve 
of far-reaching changes in the conditions of life in rural 
communities. Such a remark lies of course within the 
realm of speculation, but it is reasonable speculation. I 
look confidently for the time when social intercourse and 
manufacturing on a small scale will be restored to rural 

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communities: and, when this shall have been accom- 
plished, the country rather than the town will offer the 
opportunity for sensible living. To whom will the coun- 
try be indebted for the realization of so bright a picture? 
The question is answered before it is asked. The ten- 
dency to which reference is made is one of the many, 
blessings bound up in the development of science. It is 
the professor who, with his students, works patiently 
within his laboratory at the occult problems of electricity 
and other mechanical agencies to whom must be granted 
praise for having rendered this change possible; and yet 
he is not entirely responsible, for without the generous 
support of the people, thus giving him the opportunity of 
investigation and instruction, he would be unable to de- 
vote his life to such a service. Thus, ever do we come 
back to the idea that the higher institutions of learning 
under which we include research as well as instruction, 
are of primary, nay essential importance to the great 
body of the people. 

My third illustration is of an entirely different sort. It 
may be urged that all that has thus far been said per- 
tains to physical science and not to general culture. It is 
doubtless easier to illustrate the popular advantage of 
higher institutions of learning by reference to the phys- 
ical sciences and mechanical inventions, than by referring 
to what is sometimes called the culture studies, but one 
cannot conclude from this that the people at large are not 
interested in those departments of colleges and universi- 
ties which concern themselves with literature, music, his- 
tory, philosophy or politics. The physical sciences min- 
ister to the conditions of life ; these other branches of 
learning minister to life itself. There are many ways in 
which studies of this sort spread their blessings to the 
community even though (which 1 trust may not always 
be the case) they are followed by a comparatively small 
number. Ask yourselves seriously the question, what it 

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is you desire from your clergymen, your teachers, your 
statesmen, and you will be forced to recognize that these 
studies, sometimes called culture studies, are in reality 
professional studies for men who undertake to serve soci^ 
ety in the manner suggested. Consider this suggestion, 
for a moment, from the point of view of the clergyman, 
I know of no professional class which stands in greater 
need of a broad and* comprehensive education. Espe- 
cially is this true when we recognize to what an extent 
the spirit of social service has entered into the life and 
activities of the Church during the past twenty-five 
years. It is a most encouraging fact that this great 
institution — the peculiar guardian of the principles of 
religion and morality — should recognize the importance 
of the social as well as of the personal application of re- 
ligious principles. The Church is coming to regard itself 
as the center from which the inspiration to a higher social 
and political life should emanate, rather than as a haven 
to which man may flee from the contaminating influences 
of an evil v/orld. If, however, the Church is thus to 
serve as a center of positive influence in the community, 
it must touch the community at all points. The clergy- 
man must be able to see how good roads are related to 
right living; how manual training and technical educa- 
tion bear upon the moral life of the boys and the girls; 
how charity is related to poverty; how industrial organ- 
ization is but a phase of social organization and carries 
with it a moral influence; how the circulation of good 
books may result in fruitful thinking and healthful living; 
how through clubs for the young and societies for the old, 
the roof of the Church may be brought to shelter the 
pleasures of the people as well as their worship; and how 
all these agencies may be made to exert a positive influ- 
ence for righteousness in the conmmunity. This is easy 
of statement, but it is difficult of execution. The clergy- 
man under this newer and broader interpretation of his 

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functions, is nothing less than a social engineer, and if 
he is to perform these functions with efficiency and grace, 
it is imperative that he understands the complex and in- 
tricate machine which we call society. You appreciate 
tlie importance of a technical education which results in 
making civil and mechanical engineers, because you rec- 
ognize the industrial and commmercial bearing of their 
work, is it not reasonable to place as high an appreci- 
ation upon the education of social engineers who are 
dealing, not with the conditions of living, but with life 
itself? An affirmative reply to this question, or indeed 
any sympathy with the line of reasoning thus suggested, 
is an acknowledgement of the social importance of a gen- 
eral and comprehensive education on the part of those 
who have to do with the moulding of life. Indeed, from 
this point of view I should almost be willing to say that 
the so-called culture studies are professional studies. 
We at least find a fundamental reason why they should 
continue to be nourished by all higher institutions of 
learning. 

This phase of the subject might be further illustrated 
by referring to the work of the teacher, or to the nature 
of the public service rendered by those who make our 
laws. I pass these, however, in order to call your atten- 
tion to a yet more fundamental relation Vv'hich higher 
education bears to the interests of the people. You have 
doubtless heard the question frequently discussed wheth- 
er our democratic form of government is likely to stand 
the strain of commercial prosperity. You will not, I trust, 
convict me of lack of faith if I say that the pessimist who 
prophesies the destruction of our popular institutions can 
point to many tendencies which seem to give support to 
his doleful conclusions. Without undertaking to analyze 
the situation or speak critically of these tendencies, it 
may be appropriate to call attention to the fact, that the 
chief danger to which we are exposed arises from the 

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popular worship of business success. Not only is it a 
misfortune to the individual, but, in its results, it be- 
comes a public calamity, that the acquirment of wealth 
should be regarded as the test of a successful life.. Our 
society is dominated by the commercial ambition. Our 
form of popular government is threatened by the over- 
mastering influence of commercial interests. Many rea- 
sons might be submitted why we need a wider diffusion 
of wealth and a more equal distribution of commercial 

power. 

Such remarks as these commonly lead to the advocacy 
of some legislative remedy. The cure, however, cannot 
be accomplished by law. It can only be accomplished by 
a widespreadjLppreciation of what makes life worth hv- _ _/._ 
ing. /"rke^orthiness of life does not depend upon con- / 
■ditions but upon an intelligent interest in those things by ' 
which life is surrounded. Our universities and colleges 
are the guardians of this intelligent interest. To them 
is entrusted the lamp of learning. It is their high privi- 
lege, as well as their social duty, to transmit this lamp 
undimmed from generation to generation. The truly or- 
ganized society is one in which human interests are 
evenly balanced. It is not desired to curb the commer- 
cial ambition of men, for without the commercial interest 
there could be no industrial progress; it is, however, 
imperative that by the side of this interest there should 
flourish other interests and other aims to the end that | 
our magnificent industrial organization, which is the won- \^ 
der of history, should not in the end crush out the ideal \ 
of high living. It thus becomes the task of universities \ 

not only to minister to industrial advancement, but to j 

enable technical advancement to minister to the life of I 

the people. He who appreciates the social significance I 

of true culture cannot fail to understand the intimate 
relation which exists between the higher education and 
the life of the people. 1 close, then, with the remark 

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that institutions of learning which add to technical 
instruction and research, the spirit of culture and of at- 
tainment, render a direct service to the community in 
that they provide relief from the intensity of the demands 
of commercial life. From whatever point of view we 
look at education, it is the people who are the chief ben- 
eficiaries, partly because of the use they make of expert 
training, but primarily because of the influence which 
education exerts upon the form and spirit of society 
which touches the life of the individual at every point. I 



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